Quote:
Originally Posted by llamaorama
For a fun change of pace in the discussion on DART:
Has anyone ever pondered the idea of a Red line branch to UTD? Maybe it could be the other end of the Orange Line?
Just north of Arapaho Center station there is a single-track freight line with a huge right-of-way(150 feet wide based on google earth measurements). There are only 4 grade crossings. It runs in a perfectly straight line to the northwest, and approximately 2.3 miles later it runs onto the University of Texas at Dallas campus, right where the new Silver line DMU station is going to be.
Imagine going a little further. Even just a few miles down the same line with the same very generous ROW there is a substantial mixed use development at Coit Rd, then a Baylor Scott and White hospital and cluster of what is probably thousands of affordable apartment units at Preston Rd.
Past that you could even go to West Plano.
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That railroad corridor is owned by Kansas City Southern, not by DART. The Silver Line basically parallels this rail corridor, and I don’t think DART will kill ridership on it in favor of the KCS corridor anytime soon!
The KCS rail corridor was amongst the alternates routes included with the original EIS studies for the Silver Line, which lost to the old Cotton Belt corridor. Do not expect that decision will change, considering the soon to be $billion investment in the Silver Line.